Local Keywords
-
Hello everyone. Still loving MOZ. Question: When I research a keyword phrase such as Entertainers it is returning a local search of 15,972. I want to target three specific cities in my area ( Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Akron). When I research the phrase Cleveland Entertainers I'm getting a local search result of 0. Should I just assume that the search is still large enough to use? Should I target Cleveland Entertainers still with feedback of 0? Also is it a good idea to target the word entertainers with three separate pages to three separate cities? I'm planning on making three separate blogs with new content on each. This will not be duplicate content.
-
Hi Jason,
The explanation of your business model is helpful in a number of ways. Interestingly, (and excitingly), Google+ Local actually has a category for magicians.
Go to Mike Blumenthal's category tool (http://blumenthals.com/Google_LBC_Categories) and type 'magician' into the search box. Here's what you'll see:
Category: Magician
Synonyms: magic, _magician_s, parties, party, magic, _magician_s, parties, party, magic, _magician_s, parties, party
As a Local SEO, I find this extremely interesting because it immediately clues us in to how Google categorizes and views your business, indicating that these are core terms that should be included in the development of your local business profiles and website optimization.
I am not sure from your description whether you are making specific efforts to promote your business via Local SEO. I would think you should be doing so, provided your business meets the following criteria:
-
Has a name or DBA
-
Has a dedicated street address (even if it's a home address that you hide when creating your local business listings)
-
Has a local area code phone number
-
Makes face-to-face contact with customers (like when you perform your magic act)
If you can say 'yes' to all four things, then you should be doing Local Search Marketing to promote your business to its fullest.
Unfortunately, whether you are researching terms like 'magician' or 'entertainer', keyword research tools can give, at best, a general picture of actual local traffic. Things like the Google Keyword Planner Tool and Google Insights can help to form this general picture, but you sort of have to make an assumption that people in major cities are, indeed, looking for magicians and entertainers.
As a local business, the core of your geographic optimization is going to be based on the city in which you are physically located. If your street address is in Cleveland, then this is what Google sees you as the most relevant answer for, when it comes to user queries. You can work to appear high in the LOCAL results (often called the 7-pack) for people searching for variations of the term 'magician cleveland' or for searches searching for 'magician' from a device located in Cleveland. Again, we are talking about LOCAL results here.
Now, many business models may be located in one city, but also travel to serve additional cities (think of plumbers). Because of Google's bias towards physical location in the city of search, these service area businesses are unlikely to appear in the Local results for these additional service cities. Instead, they have go after gaining visibility in the ORGANIC results for these additional service cities.
Currently, best practices for achieving this involve the creation of city landing pages. One page for each city where you serve. The content on each page must be unique and awesome. It should be optimized for what you do in the city where you do it. You can read a detailed explanation of this practice here:
The Nitty Gritty of City Landing Pages For Local Businesses
How well this practice works depends on how competitive your local market is, and how much work you may need to do to promote these pages. Gaining even a modest amount of visibility in the organic results for your additional service cities can make phones ring, so this will be an important area for you to investigate. Hope this helps!
-
-
Thanks for the response. I am a professional Magician. I perform mostly at corporate events, sales meetings, trade shows etc. It's kind of an odd product seeing that I don't have a solid object I am selling. Think of a comedian and and how they would promote themselves.
-
Hi Jason,
We're so glad to have you here at Moz! Could you describe your business model? Are you running a local business with a physical address that makes face-to-face contact with your clients? Or, perhaps, a directory? The more information you can provide, the better answers you'll receive from the community. Again, welcome aboard!
-
Awesome thank you so much. The budget I'm working with is small so I'm not sure if Adwords is in the picture right now. We are ranking well for organic approach, but not necessarily the words I want to rank for. Here is what I"m working on now. I'm thinking about developing a page for Cleveland Entertainers (Local: 15,972). This will be my main keyword focus for this page. I'm also going to try to secondarily rank for Cleveland Party Entertainers (Local: 323) and Cleveland Party ( Local: 84,000). I don't want to overdue each page with to many keywords, I think three is the right amount. Also each phrase has a relation to each other, which will help tie the page together. Does this seem like a right assumption. Once I create this page for Cleveland I will do the same for Pittsburgh and Akron.
The way that I have been making these pages are also through blog post, not static pages. I have created categories for each city ( Cleveland Pittsburgh, Akron). When I write the post for these pages I use the appropriate category for the city. I have heard that this is the way to go, blog post instead of static? Any thoughts?
-
You're on the right track with your traffic assumption. If you can, I would suggest validating your traffic assumption with a little adwords effort. Yes, if you want to compete in more cities, you will have to come up with unique content geared to those individual cities. Of course, for this organic effort (as with any), you should also take a long look at what your competition is for those searches and make a smart judgement about your site's/page's ability to compete. Finally, I am often surprised by how much more can be gotten out of a page vs what a kw analysis tool will tell you. Often, but not always, it's a lot more because of all the related terms and your efforts around that. I hope that helps. Best...Darcy
-
Another additional question too. When researching a keyword, what is a high amount for a local search result? Entertainers get's me a local result of 15,972. Party Entertainers gets a result of 323. When is the local search result number to low to care about? 20? 300? 3,000? I know the number is relevant to how many people you would like to make contact with. Just wondering if anyone has found a number to draw the line at?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Exact Long Tail Keyword Wording?
Hi everyone! I'm currently doing long tail keyword research and I'm coming across keywords such as deer wall print for nursery for the main keyword "deer wall print" which doesn't really incorporate too well into a into a grammatically correct paragraph. Can I use something like **deer wall print for your nursery **or deer wall print is perfect for in a nursery? Does it have to be exact reproduction if I am trying to rank for a long tail keyword term/phrase?
Keyword Research | | TheFlyingSweetPotato0 -
About Keywords
Hi everybody! I was reading a huge pdf about keywords, long tails and too many things and my brain is now like a blender. What is the diference between long tails and keywords? Thanks to everybody! Have a nice day!
Keyword Research | | Harmario0 -
Local keywords still relevant?
Now with Google localizing search increasingly personalizing queriesquery results, is it still necessary to add geo-specific modifiers to keywords? [reworded for clarity]
Keyword Research | | SSFCU0 -
Where are the Google Search Volumes in Keyword Analysis
I just joined and started by doing some keyword analysis, For some reason although I select "On Google", the tool only reports Bing Search Volume (Exact match). I am not that interested in Bing - not sure how to display the Google search stats
Keyword Research | | jbendiner0 -
Keyword Research Local vs Organic
I am curious what tact people take when doing KWR for a local business where regional keywords are important, for example 'Dallas Family Dentist' vs just 'Family Dentist'? It can be challenging to consistently create content for these regional keywords without looking spammy or akward in the wording of titles and copy. Any advice on how you approach SEO research or content creation when these regional words are important?
Keyword Research | | AESEO0 -
Competitive keyword ranking
Hi, I'm checking the SEOMoz keyword rankings report. I've set about 30 keywords and it's awesome to see how they rank and how many times they were clicked. However it would be interesting to see whether the keywords that I entered are competitive or not. It's not worth putting a lot of energy in making non competitive words rank higher I guess. So my question is: is it possible to see whether or not ranked keywords are competitive or not? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | webctp0 -
Spammy Industry Keyword Research
Hi everyone, First question posted on here. I have spent a lot time this week going through videos and discussions since I signed up here earlier this week. We're just starting in a particular niche that is powerful (home-based businesses), but EXTREMELY spammy with all the at-home opportunities from stuffing envelopes, to MLM, etc. Then there's the other side which is not as spammy, but just not an overall good business model with the in-home Tupperware, candle, and makeup party sales companies. The people that we help and serve are just people who want to start up a part-time or full-time home-based business doing what they love. Maybe it's a dad who loves golf and would like to start a golf store on Ebay or a lady who is great at making stuff and wants to open an Etsy shop or start selling her goods at craft fairs. Our program is more about teaching them how to start a real home-based business that can either earn them a profit either part-time or fulltime while also doing what they love and spending time with their family. My biggest question right now as we begin the Keyword Research and SEO process part of this, is how do we go about doing the keyword research for this while also dealing with a spammy niche? All the research I've been doing for home-based businesses comes back to all the ugly examples I gave above and that isn't the type of people that we're a good fit for. I appreciate all your help and guidance in advance. Been doing web development for 10+ years but finally taking the tiger by the throat and actually learning the SEO/SEM piece myself.
Keyword Research | | buzzmediallc0 -
Keyword Rank are working Wrong???
hi i am in Argentina, search customize to Argentina in google,yahoo and bing. all my keyword in seomoz go down 10 places. when i click in a keyword , i see that is searching in .com (all the world) . when i do a local search i see correct rankings? thanks for reply Gabo
Keyword Research | | monotero0